East Yorkshire's fascination with animal sculpture trails continues - this time it's the turn of 6ft rats.

They will pay tribute to a Hull-born superstar, Mick Ronson, best known as the guitarist and arranger behind David Bowie at the height of the glam rock chapter of his career.

When Ronson met Bowie in 1970, he had been playing for four years in a Hull-band called The Rats, but he was also working a day-job as a gardener for Hull City Council.

Businesses are being asked to sponsor up to 50 rats for the Daisy Appeal, funding cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities at Castle Hill Hospital.

David Bowie (1947 - 2016, left) performing with guitarist Mick Ronson (1946 1993) at a live recording of 'The 1980 Floor Show' for the NBC 'Midnight Special' TV show, at The Marquee Club in London, with a specially invited audience of Bowie fanclub members, 20th October 1973. (Photo by Jack Kay/Daily Express/Getty Images)

The "Mischief of Rats" will be decorated by artists and eventually sold off at a charity auction

It was the three Yorkshire Spiders from Mars - the group initially consisted of Ronson on guitar, Hull-born Trevor Bolder on bass, and Driffield’s Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey on drums - that brought Bowie amazing international success in the early 1970s.

Aside from his stint as a musician with Bowie, Ronson released five solo studio albums and performed in bands with Ian Hunter, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan as well as working with many other musicians.

Ronson died of liver cancer at age 46 in 1993. Bowie would later succumb to the same illness in 2016 at the age of 69.

The project's co-director Rick Welton first saw Ronson perform at The Brick House music venue he was running in Baker Street in Hull. "I was a bit in awe of him, he was a bit of a musical god in Hull, an absolutely brilliant guitarist. His sister Maggi and the family think it's a good project."

Mr Welton whose other fundraising animal sculpture trails includes toads, moths and puffins, said there's been an enthusiastic response from businesses at the start of Humber Business Week , with Hull Trains and developers Wykeland Group coming on board to sponsor one at £4,500 each.

Organisers hope to raise up to £250,000 for the Hull and East Yorkshire Medical Research Centre’s Daisy Appeal. The long-awaited Hull Molecular Imaging Centre at Castle Hill Hospital is due to be finally handed over this September.

6ft rats in new sculpture trail pays tribute to Hull's Spider from Mars Mick Ronson